The Airship Aurelia (The Aurelian Archives) (41 page)

“Maybe he’s purposefully coming late. Reece has done that before,” Hayden said slowly.

Quirking an eyebrow, Reece shot back,
“Or maybe this is his fourth tourney this year, and all the hysteria is getting a little old. Or maybe he’s not docketed to fence until later in the tournament.
Or
,” he added sharply as Scarlet, examining her nails rather than looking at him, opened her mouth, “maybe it’s
nothing
. You two sound like a pair of old ladies gossiping over your knitting.”

With sudden vehemence, Scarlet snapped her head up and retorted,
“At least my gossip gets us a little closer to the truth. I’m working at clearing our name so we can continue our mission. Remember that? Our mission? Or are you hiding from that as well as Po?”

Reece’s expression darkened, going dangerously flat as he stared at her. Hayden had the wild impulse to jump between him and Scarlet for everyone’s sake, but—perhaps luckily—he never had the chance, because just then, Hannick arrived.

Po was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Hannick was flanked by a pair of burly redheaded guards who plowed a path for him out of the throng. He was on them before either Reece or Scarlet noticed him coming, his bagged uniform slung over one shoulder, his skinny sword already belted at his hip.

“
Reece,” he groaned, exasperated, and Reece jumped and squinted at him as if wondering where he’d come from. “You’re supposed to be with the rest of the club…our sponsors will be expecting it. Ah, never mind that for now. Where’s your sword?” With a hand on Reece’s shoulder, Hannick started guiding him away, talking him through tournament etiquette and traditions, ignoring Reece’s uneasy backward glances at his friends.

“
Hannick?” Scarlet called loudly. Hannick finished out his remark about a certain judge Reece should step lightly around before flipping his red hair out of his face to peer back at her. Scarlet’s smile was sharp and level, a sword aimed for the throat. “Where is Po?”

His face clearing, Hannick sighed.
“I passed her off to your Pantedan comrades, Love. She assured me they’d all be along to watch the tournament shortly.” Tut-tutting, he nodded for Reece to come along already. “Your friend Ms. Ashdown is a tad disagreeable, you know that?”

“
A mite,” Reece agreed dryly, without looking back.

Hayden waited till they’d gone, then slipped his hand into Scarlet’s and held it till her lower lip stopped trembling.

XX

The Enviable Turtle Blue

Had the task been left up to Hayden, he would never have found the six crewmembers of
The Aurelia
a place to sit in the fencing hall. Its tiered benches were filled to capacity and then some, with no standing room left to speak of. He couldn’t imagine what the room would have looked like had the three other cities been able to attend. Thankfully, with Gideon and Mordecai leading the way, he, Nivy, Scarlet, and Po had only to focus on sticking together so as not to get swept away by the rocking crowds who screamed, jumped, and waved as down on the fencing floor, competitors were introduced one by one to greater and greater applause. A few growled words from Gideon were enough to clear out a small circle of space halfway up to the back wall.

“
Fencing tourneys have changed a bit since my day,” Mordecai said loudly as he made himself comfy on the bench, stretching so the people behind him were forced to duck. “These things used to be dull as mud.”

Gideon snickered and settled on the bench below him.
“Still are, at The Owl.”

“
That ain’t true,” Po scolded, squeezing in next to Mordecai so there would be enough room for Nivy to join her. Even then, if Nivy weren’t as skinny as a rail, she probably wouldn’t have fit. “They’re just quiet, is all. Focused. This makes it more like a sport. Hey!” Laughing as Gideon leaned back against her knees with his hands folded comfortably on his stomach, she tried shoving him and for her effort only got a satisfied smirk.

“
This ain’t a sport,” he drawled. “You get disqualified for fightin’ dirty. What kind’a sport is that? Ship repellin’. There’s a sport.”

Talfryn’s name boomed over the announcer’s sonic transducer, warbled and distorted but nonetheless inciting a burst of riotous applause. Hayden slowly sat between Gideon and Scarlet, neck stretched to watch the slight figure in blue prowling across the fencing floor with her mask pinned under her arm. Waving happily, Tallie stepped into line with her fellow competitors without seeming to care she was one of only three girls among them.

“Nivy,” Scarlet said, twisting on the bench as the announcer continued to call out fencers, “did you learn anything? About Hannick?”

“
What about Hannick?” Po asked, frowning. Up near the ceiling, a mechanized score board was lowered on chains to hover above the ring…or
strip
, according to Talfryn’s teachings. It flickered, screen activating, before giving a loud rebellious buzz and shorting back to black. The crowds booed; someone threw a hat at it.

Gideon, who had been glancing back and forth between Scarlet and Nivy, grunted with sudden comprehension and informed Po,
“Scarlet Girl had you followed.”

Instead of disparaging Gideon for ratting on her, Scarlet blinked at him, looking taken aback and strangely touched. To Hayden’s knowledge, it was the first time he had ever called her that. It was always
Po Girl
,
Nivy Girl
, and just…Scarlet. Or some adjective in place of, like
Fussy
, or
Sassy
. This was her initiation.

“
Followed?” Po repeated. “You still think he’s no good, don’t you? Even after he stuck his neck out for us with his father, and helped us eliminate all those suspects you thought up?”

“
All that did was keep us here longer, Po.” Scarlet had pulled out an ivory fan and begun waving it in front of her flushed face. Hayden didn’t envy her the superfluous bulk of her skirts in this crowded, steamy room. “He made it seem helpful, but he didn’t just eliminate suspects for us.
He took them away
. It took us the better part of the last four days to find as many leads as we did. He batted them down without blinking.”

“
And he didn’t stick his neck out too far,” Gideon added. “‘Cause his head is still on.” When Hayden and the others stared at him in mystified silence, he griped, “Oh, comon’. Everyone knows that’s what that means. You stick your neck out, your head gets lobbed off. You see what I’m sayin’?”

Whiskers twitching, Mordecai said earnestly,
“Maybe King Pryor don’t have an ax.”

“
Or maybe the wind caught it.” Po gestured, her hands blowing off course. “You know, threw off his aim.”

With a playful growl, Gideon threatened,
“You’re gonna hope my aim gets thrown off in a minute.”

Nivy, never one to be bothered with tact, chose to ignore the whole exchange and move on. She snapped her fingers once at Scarlet and started to sign, but just then the crowds catapulted to their feet with deafening roars, making the whole bench rattle. Hannick’s name had been called.

The prince, his uniform a terrific royal red, strolled along with a hand on the hilt of his sword, grinning with approval at his reception. He took his time joining the other fencers and gave his younger sister a wide berth even though she was clapping politely for him. Hayden shoved his jolt of annoyance to the back of his head impatiently.

Most of the crowd didn’t even notice when Reece came out on Hannick’s heels and slid into line nonchalantly, tightening his arm bracers. Contrary to popular belief, Reece never exactly
minded
attention, but he rarely went looking for it. That was one thing, at least, that set him apart from Hannick.

“
Well, I suppose that’s something,” Scarlet said in response to Nivy’s gestures as the crowd at last settled in to listen to the reading of the tournament rules. “Still, we ought to keep an eye on him.”

“
What about Owon?” Hayden thought to ask. “How is he faring in the brig?”

Although the Vee had not specified in his and Reece’s agreement how he expected to be housed, he hadn’t seemed bothered by Reece’s insistence he be taken into Oceanun custody rather than given a room of his own. In fact, to Gideon’s great annoyance, he had seemed pleased when his leash had been relinquished to the Oceanun guards. The only thing that had effected his chilling smile in the least had been Hayden asking how his stock of serum was holding up…just out of curiosity. One of the serum’s big disadvantages was the transience of its effects; it needed to be taken three times daily, and Owon’s luggage was limited to a single black bag he had managed to keep hidden in the cargo bay right up until the guards were sent for him, and the pain agents he had stolen at the start of their voyage. Reece had looked ready to chew nails when Owon had casually tossed the bag over his back and said he was sure they’d meet again.

As Mordecai patted down his pockets for a sparkstarter, he mumbled around his cigar, “We should’a sent him on his way with a care package. Some candles and flowers, a card with all our handprints on it, that sorta thing. The place ain’t exactly homey.”

“
But did he seem to be going through withdrawal?”

Mordecai took so long trying to light his cigar, Gideon answered for him.
“He might’a been a little creepier than usual. That’s all I noticed.”

“
It’s a little weird, isn’t it? Him not bein’ here?” Po asked. “I’d kinda gotten used to him. Oh, look!” She squeaked excitedly as the announcer backed out of the ring so the first two contestants could take their places on the strip.  “It’s startin’!”

The competition was fierce and furious. Hayden knew only the little about fencing Tallie and Reece had taught him, but he could’ve known nothing at all and still oohed
and covered his eyes at some of the bouts, they were so fast-paced and closely-matched. He’d always thought the quiet intensity of The Owl’s fencing matches unnerving, because they’d put him on the edge of his seat, about to combust with no outlet. But there was something about the screaming crowds making every match out to be a life or death fight that was electrifying. By three matches in, he had chewed his nails down to nubs.

Reece’s name, along with Hannick and Talfryn’s, climbed from bracket to bracket as the day and the tournament wore on. Hayden felt acutely embarrassed watching Tallie fence at her finest. He’d suspected she was holding back at their practices, but he hadn’t realized
how much
. She was a whiplash blur with her jabs, thrusts, and cuts; out of everyone’s, her matches were the shortest and most unvaried. She would dance forward and score, return to her line, dance forward and score, return to her line, and then before the crowd could even really work up to the proper level of excitement, a bell would sound the time, singing her another victory, and she would wave her thanks and return to the bench. Hayden caught her eye once. She saluted him, grinning breathlessly.

Grunting, Gideon elbowed him and wondered,
“She grinnin’ at you like that?”

“
Well,” Mordecai said, leaning back and forth as if to test whether or not her eyes would follow him, “she sure ain’t lookin’ at
me
.”

“
Under Delegate Talfryn has been giving Hayden fencing lessons,” Scarlet informed them with a wry smile.

Hayden felt himself turning as pink as a turnip.
“And that’s all, thank you,” he painfully added as Mordecai and Gideon swapped a meaningful look and mouthed,
Fencing lessons!
“She’s just a—oh, forget it.”

Po touched his arm sympathetically as he dropped his face into his hands.
“Ignore them, Hayden. I think it’s sweet you found yourself a nice girl to spend time with.”

“
But I don’t—”

It was the blessed announcer who saved him from what no doubt would have been a blundering attempt at changing the subject. As he called Reece up for his next bout, Po gasped,
“Oh, he’s goin’ up against that other girl! She looks nasty.”

Gideon suddenly stood.
“I’ll be back,” he mumbled.

Dragging his pink face up out of his hands, Hayden asked curiously—and because yes, he was still hoping to divert the attention away from himself,
“Where are you going?”

“
I’m gettin’ twitchy. Need some fresh air.”

Hayden rose hopefully.
“Would you like me to come with you?”

“
What are we, Twelves?” Gideon snorted, giving him a knowing look as he began angling his big shoulders through the crowd that did nothing but enflame Hayden’s blush.

The bout was a particularly brutal one, punctuated by a lot of gasping, wincing, and whimpering from Po. Reece’s opponent, the
“nasty” girl in yellow armor, was very good, but more than that, she was quick to press her advantage, not to mention her luck with the judges. She kept Reece dancing on his toes and Hayden balanced precariously on the edge of his seat. As the time wound down, Reece barely scraped up the points he needed to take the match, scoring three in quick succession. The girl threw down her sword, tore off her helmet, and stomped in the direction of her changing rooms with a ruddy, tear-streaked face.